'A Woman in Berlin'

Published: September 25, 2005

To the Editor:

I read with interest Christoph Gottesmann's letter casting doubt on the authenticity of the anonymous diary ''A Woman in Berlin.'' I wrote the introduction to the diary, having studied it closely during the research for my own book ''The Fall of Berlin 1945.''After other discredited publications, such as the ''Hitler Diaries'' and ''Last Letters From Stalingrad,'' I was inevitablyon my guardwhen studying the original edition in 1998. But I soon became convinced that the work was genuine.

This diary is completely free of significant mistakes and of the false notes that betrayed the two examples mentioned. All the diarist's observations were supported by other accounts and reports. This was by no means my judgment alone. Contrary toGottesmann's assertion that there was ''no serious investigation'' of the manuscript's authenticity, the original notes and typescript were subject to close examination by a well-known diary expert of the period, Walter Kempowski, at the request of the German publisher, and declared authentic.

Among Gottesmann's other objections was his suspicion that in transcribing her handwritten notes to typescript, the diarist made some corrections and alterations. As with most diaries, that is hardly unusual. More to the point, it is clearly acknowledged by everyone involved in the diary's publication. In fact, the single concrete detail with which Gottesmann finds fault is the diarist's failure, as he sees it, to mention Hitler's birthday. Yet it isclearly there in the April 21 entry, along with the diarist's observation that the date had slipped everyone's mind.

Finally, Gottesmann suggests that ''until a serious and critical edition of the diaries of the 'woman in Berlin' is published, this book should be regarded as a work of fiction rather than that of fact,'' but I find it astonishing that he does not support his insinuation by producing a single convincing example of mistakes or inconsistencies or by furnishing any other evidence that this is not an authentic account. I am not aware of any, and until Gottesmann proves otherwise, I certainly regard it as the most powerful personal account to come out of World War II.